Barry McGuigan may have impressed MPW on Hell’s Kitchen with his mashed potato but Harrison's has long known homemade mash is simply smashing.
The caterer, founded in 1994, made fresh food a cornerstone of its growth long before Jamie Oliver pointed out the state of school meals.
Harrison’s recently picked up the borough wide deal for London’s Bexley Heath taking its tally of schools catered for to 380, so it knows its erm potatoes.
But one does wonder if the Government truly appreciates the state that state catering is actually in and how risible £460m for England over six years (that’s roughly £20,000 per school over the period) is funding-wise if they want to transform it. Training is not cheap.
To illustrate one can make use of the the humble potato to highlight the fundamental lack of skills and reliance on pre-made goods inherent in a school meals system that up until very recently always awarded tenders to the cheapest caterer by default.
How so? Well Geoffrey Harrison, managing director of Harrison’s, believes in buying spuds in by the bag and preparing them on site to make a truly satisfying mash. It’s the sort of policy that the Government via the School Food Trust endorses: The image of well trained, dedicated and motivated caterers producing top-notch grub for slim and healthy children.
So what’s the big deal, you ask? Simply the sad fact that at most contracts Harrison’s wins its first job is usually to buy potato peelers (and other basic equipment) for the kitchen (as typically it's been bought in pre-made or liberated from packets).
“We did find a peeler in the kitchen at Bexley, to be fair,” said Harrison. “But it was covered with cobwebs and a layer of dust.”
Great for Halloween parties and food manufactures you’ll agree but probably not quite what Oliver and a succession of education secretaries envisioned. A policy in taters, perhaps?
Jamie Oliver says school meals going as planned>>
